Techniques of conducting successful advocacy campaigns and networking were studied in Kharkiv

On August 13-17, seminar on coalition building, networking and conducting of advocacy campaigns was implemented in Kharkiv. The trainers: Tetiana Durnieva and Oleh Kulinich. The seminar was attended by 20 participants from different regions of Ukraine.

"Participants learned to identify the key problem, analyse the causes and consequences, and correctly formulate the final and intermediate goals of an advocacy campaign. They mastered teamwork, identified the components of success and failures of coalition and networks. They paid attention to the main stages of an advocacy campaign and assembled those elements present at each stage. The participants got to know several approaches to the analysis of stakeholders, practiced filling in the stakeholder matrix, Zwicky’s morphological matrix; summarized all the tools of citizens' influence on decision-making, gained insight on the power system in Ukraine in the context of decentralization. They developed the concepts of an advocacy campaign on a set subject and analysed them together", the trainers emphasized.

According to the feedback, there were no problems during the event, and although pandemic and quarantine restrictions were quite challenging, it did not affect the seminar . The good weather allowed some group exercises to be performed outdoors, which had a positive effect on the physical and emotional state of the group.

"Participants liked working in groups, making practical tasks. They noticed a positive atmosphere, comfortable training conditions, the group members' constructive cooperation spirit", the trainers summed up.

The seminar was implemented within the "Crisis prevention and Peace building in Ukraine – Time to Act!" project, supported with German Federal Foreign Office’s funds by IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Funding programme zivik.